The Sunset Prince
The children held on tight as the carpet shot through the grand entrance of the palace and turned left into an enormous room. At the far end was a small shiny brown crystal man in a white turban sat on his throne smiling.
“The Sunset Prince himself,” Onyx whispered.
“Hi guys!” the Sunset Prince exclaimed in a foreign accent. “What brings you here?”
Emerald stepped forwards. “We’ve come for the jewel,” he said.
The prince laughed. “Which jewel?” he asked. “I have hundreds of the things.”
“A large diamond,” Onyx said.” It’s a magic stone. I thought Quartz told you we were coming.”
The prince looked puzzled. “I haven’t heard from Quartz in ages,” he said. “My crystal ball has been dark recently. I’m beginning to think it’s lost all its power.”
“That’s most unfortunate,” Onyx said solemnly. “We’ve had a bloodstone attack in The Crystal World. Almost everyone there is under a powerful, destructive spell. We need that diamond!”
The prince’s eyes widened as he leaned forward out of his chair. “You’ve had a BLOODSTONE attack?” he gasped.
“Yes,” replied Amethyst. “It’s brought with it the most awful people who have taken over our world.”
But then the prince began to look suspicious. “How do I know you’re not making all of this up to steal the diamond from me?” he said, staring hard at them all.
“Oh dear,” Onyx sighed. “We are not thieves. We have very little time left to save our people now. Is there no other way Quartz could have contacted you?”
“I suppose I could check my magic mirror,” the prince said.
He jumped off his throne and drew back a turquoise satin curtain in the corner of the room. Behind it was a large black circular mirror in a golden frame. He whipped a green cloth from his pocket and polished the mirrors shiny surface. The mirror began to change colour. It went from black to grey to blue to white to a misty mauve and then Quartz’s face appeared on its surface. He looked extremely angry.
“Thank goodness!” Quartz boomed. “I have been trying to communicate with you for twelve hours! Our world is in trouble. Have my messengers arrived?”
The Sunset Prince began to quiver. “Y-yes. They are h-here,” he stuttered.
“Ah yes,” said Quartz, looking towards Zoe and her friends. “I see them now. You must give them the diamond this instant. We have little more than an hour to save our people.”
“Ok,” said the prince. “I will.”
Quartz’s face faded and the prince turned to Zoe and her friends. “I haven’t seen the diamond,” he said nervously. Although, there was a strange disturbance down in the vaults yesterday – I heard a banging noise like someone hammering. When I went to investigate, I could hear strange wailing sounds and mysterious music playing. I realise now that must have been the magic diamond forming.”
“Please fetch it,” Onyx said.
“Ah, there’s a bit of a problem,” the prince said gloomily. “It could be behind any one of a thousand small doors.”
“WHAT?” everyone chorused.
“A wasted journey!” Emerald cried.
“Well, there are seven of us,” Sapphire said. “If we all get looking there’s a chance we might find it in time.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” Zoe agreed, though she knew the chances of getting it back before Hilda and Sid became rulers of The Crystal World were now very slim.
“Follow me!” the prince said. He led them through a grand white corridor to a shining golden lift. He pressed a black button and the doors opened. Everyone stepped inside and the doors closed. He pressed a silver button and the lift slowly travelled downwards. Then, at last, the golden doors opened into the dark vault lit only by a dim blue light.
There, in front of everyone, were the thousand small doors, each one just a little bigger than the size of a playing card.
Chapter 11
Race Against Time
The lift was on one wall of the square vault and the thousand small doors covered the other three walls from top to bottom.
The prince told Amethyst and Emerald to search the left wall and Citrine and Zoe to search the right wall. He and Sapphire would search the wall facing the lift. That left Onyx, who was told to hover above and search the top two rows all round, as no one else could reach them.
The prince pointed a blue crystal at a button on the ceiling and a loud clicking sound was heard as the thousand doors unlocked.
Everyone quickly set to work opening and searching. Some doors contained gold brooches and necklaces, some contained precious jewels, some contained other objects, but many were empty.
“Ugh!” Emerald exclaimed as he opened a door and found a pair of pearly false teeth grinning at him.
“They were my late grandfather’s,” the Sunset Prince said sadly.
Then Citrine shouted, “I’ve found it! I’ve found it!”
Everyone grinned gleefully.
“Well done!” the prince said in delight.
“You’re a champion!” Sapphire said, beaming.
“Brilliant!” exclaimed Zoe.
Onyx watched Citrine waving the small diamond in the air and frowned. “I’m afraid that’s not it,” he said. “The magic diamond will be much bigger than that.”
Feeling deflated, everyone exchanged disappointed glances and got back to work opening and searching.
At last, Zoe opened a door and almost fainted. There, in front of her, was a large shining diamond glinting all the colours of the rainbow. “I think I’ve found it!” she exclaimed.
Onyx peered into the space behind the door. “That’s it!” he said. “Well done young lady!” Zoe picked up the diamond and placed it in her pocket.
“Let’s go then,” Amethyst said, heading for the lift.
“No!” cried the Sunset Prince. “The door to the stars will be much quicker.”
“Door to the STARS?” said Sapphire.
“Up there,” said the prince pointing at a small, glossy black door in the ceiling.
“Are you mad?” asked Emerald. “We can’t get up there and the door is smaller than we are!”
Suddenly, Zoe began to feel strange.
“We’re all shrinking!” said Sapphire, alarmed.
“We’re floating!” exclaimed Zoe as the shrunken group drifted upwards towards the door, which was now opening to reveal twinkling yellow stars in a deep blue sky.
Only the prince remained his normal size and stayed on the ground. “Goodbye!” he said waving up at everyone as they floated gently up through the door.
Zoe looked around in awe as she floated through the starry sky. It felt so unreal, but so very beautiful. Then, they found themselves floating through a thick, silvery mist.
“I can’t see anything,” said Citrine in dismay.
“This is dangerous!” exclaimed Amethyst.
“We’re all going to die!” cried Emerald.
“Don’t worry,” said Onyx. “We’re almost there.”
Gradually, the mist became thinner and thinner and they found themselves floating back in The Crystal World over Carnelian Wood. They had become their normal size again.
Zoe could see Sid and Hilda. The ugly pair were sitting on thrones on a wooden platform in the centre of the wood. They were surrounded by a huge crowd of crystal people. The crowning ceremony was about to begin.
“Don’t crown them!” Emerald shouted from the sky. He swooped downwards, but became frightened by their hideous faces and floated upwards again.
Hilda and Sid looked up, their faces contorted with anger.
“It’s you lot!” Sid shouted, shaking his fist.
“Stupid little kids! Stupid silly genie!” Hilda screamed.
Onyx and the children swiftly turned and flew on towards the cauldron. Zoe swooped downwards, avoiding the scalding swirling steam, and threw the diamond in. It landed with a huge splash. Stunning ra
inbow coloured steam now rose and swirled high into the air.
Everyone shot through the air as fast as they could back to the platform, where the crowning ceremony was about to take place.
They hovered above the disgusting pair, who were laughing and sneering at them.
Hilda stood up and sang in a horrible, screechy, out of tune voice, “I am the queen, I am the queen, I am the queen and you are all rubbish!”
But she hadn’t been crowned yet. The filthy grins were suddenly wiped from their nasty faces when, without warning, the platform began to rumble and shake like an earthquake.
The crowd of crystal folk, who had gathered to see them crowned, were now booing them. The spell had been completely broken!
“Help us you fools!” Sid shouted, struggling to keep his wig on, his floppy face wobbling as the platform shook violently.
“Hurry up idiots!” Hilda screamed, falling off her throne.
“No. We won’t help you. You silly rotten pair of cucumbers!” a pink crystal man shouted.
The crowd roared with laughter.
“How dare you!” Hilda yelled.
The platform continued to rumble and shake and quake. Then it collapsed and split in two. A huge hole appeared in the ground.
The couple fell down through the hole and everyone cheered and roared with laughter. Then their ugly faces appeared again as they flew back upwards as though they had bounced off a huge, springy trampoline.
“Heeeeeelllp!” Hilda screeched as her dress blew up over her face revealing her big red knickers.
“Nooooooo!” Sid screamed as his wig blew off and landed on Emeralds head!
“Yuk!” Emerald cried, angrily ripping the wig off as his friends laughed at him.
The old fools shot up into the air like rockets as they travelled back to Earth. Zoe and her friends floated down onto the magic carpet, which had suddenly zoomed in just in time to catch them.
The crowd cheered and bowed to their heroes Zoe, Amethyst, Citrine, Emerald, Sapphire, Onyx, and now Quartz - who had magically appeared on the carpet with the rest of them.
Zoe began to feel very strange. Everything was beginning to fade.
Amethyst turned to her. “Thank you Zoe,” she said, gripping her hand.
Now all Zoe could see were whirling, sparkling spirals of colour. Then she found herself back home in her room. She lay there stunned. Then she turned on her lamp. The beautiful rainbow stone was still there sparkling next to her pillow.
Zoe missed her little friends already. She knew it had not been a dream. A dream could never have seemed so real. She smiled, knowing the crystal folk were happy once again. Then she turned over and went back to sleep.
###
Candy J. Moon grew up in Saltburn-by-the-Sea and Stratford-upon-Avon. She has worked in a library, a theatre, a café and various offices. Candy loves nothing better than to spend time writing glittering stories to bring a little special magic into the lives of those who read them.
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer.
Thanks!
Candy J. Moon
candymoonmagic.wordpress.com
Quiz
How much do you remember about The Magic Rainbow Stone?
1.Which birthday is Zoe about to celebrate?
2.What is the name of the wood?
3.What is the name of the wizard?
4.Which evil stone transports Sid and Hilda to The Crystal World?
5.What is the charm on Emerald’s necklace shaped like?
6.Which drink does Ruby give the children when they visit The Obsidian House?
7.What is the name of the ice cream parlour at the beach?
8.What breaks when Hilda looks into it?
9.What picture does the tigers eye stone have painted on it?
10.Where is the ballet shoe found?
11.What is the genie’s name?
Answers
1.Her ninth
2.Carnelian
3.Quartz
4.Bloodstone
5.Key
6.Tea
7.Frosty’s
8.Mirrors
9.Ballet shoe
10.Theatre
11.Onyx
The Magic Rainbow Stone Page 4